On Thu, 15 Apr 2010, Alex Hornung wrote:
The ionice priority is similar to nice, but the levels nice values range from 0 to 10, and unlike the usual nice, 10 is the highest priority and 0 the lowest. Usage is exactly the same as nice: # ionice -n 10 sh read_big
I'm still of the opinion that having a tool that resembles "nice" that closely having the exact opposite semantics is a really bad idea. People *will* forget which is what, and mess it up, especially users that are new to the whole Unix thing.
If it for some reason is absolutely imperative that the numerical interpretation of the priority levels don't change (I don't see why, but you might have your reasons), would you consider renaming the tool "iopriority" or something similar?
(I would still prefer that it works exactly as "nice" with no surprises, negative levels and all, but a different name would hopefully serve to remind users that the two really are different.)
MAgnus
